Summary:
Ted and Linda Murphey were interviewed in November, 1976. They had operated Murphey’s Valley Prescription Pharmacy on a site near the present-day Wells Fargo Bank from 1947 to 1964. Twelve years later they described for their interviewer the other principle businesses–mostly restaurants and gas stations–that existed on Mount Diablo Boulevard at that time.
Oral History:
Ted Murphey and his wife, Linda, operated Murphey’s Valley Prescription Pharmacy in Lafayette from 1947 until 1964. Ted was working in Pacific Grove when he heard that the Juell Pharmacy in Lafayette was for sale.
“First I came up to look at it, because I always favored prescription type stores,” Ted explained, “and this was a nice little hospital-type, fixtures and everything … all cream white and lots of drawers … not much merchandise on display. So I decided to come to Lafayette, made a bid on it and got it.”
The pharmacy was located in a brick building on Mt. Diablo Boulevard (today World Travel Headquarters) near Wells Fargo Bank. At the time Ted came to Lafayette, the corner had nothing on it except a pear orchard. “It was a dirt road when we first came here, although it may have been paved just after. There was lots of dust that flew off it, I remember,” Ted said. “There were two other stores here, one run by a man named Richards, who had another store in Berkeley, and another was Mort Sparling’s, who called his place Lafayette Pharmacy.”
Ted described what his store, considered a very modern pharmacy, looked like when he opened it in 1947. “There were two small glass cases opposite the way you’d walk in and a rather wide aisle on each side of these cases. Then as you came forward, the service counter was a rounded oval shape on the front, square across the back and had a 30-inch aisle behind it. You faced this counter and to your right was a little alcove. In that alcove were greeting cards, some school supplies, vitamins and mineral capsules, all that type of thing both for adults and children.
“To your left along the west wall there was, the first twenty feet or so, shelving all the way down clear to the rear of the store, but about twenty feet from the front on each side there was a space about twenty- four inches wide with mirrors behind and lights above, which made a very attractive appearance. To continue back to where the prescription counter was, that came straight across from behind the register. The wrapping counter curved around in a gentle curve parallel to the wall, went back about five or six feet, then came into the area where the prescriptions were filled and the prescription materials were kept.
“We had fluorescent lighting completely through the store and a back room for storage and later, as our business grew, we had filing cases back there for our prescriptions. Our store out front was small, about seventeen feet wide by thirty-five feet deep to the back wall.
“I bought this store from the Board of Trade, and business was practically nonexistent,” Ted remembered. “The wholesalers have this group that they call the Board of Trade. They turn their bills all over to the Board of Trade, and they have legal authority to make a demand upon the person who owns the store that he straighten out his financial affairs or they’ll take over the business. I think the first day we took in something like thirty-five dollars, and that was mostly people curious, dropping in. But as time went on, it gradually grew, and in about three years we had a very satisfactory business. Our primary business was prescriptions.
“In 1947, we were the only store east of the tunnel who did that sort of thing (made deliveries), went out at night, filled prescriptions and delivered medications to the people who needed it. That included Orinda, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Concord, Alamo, Martinez even. We had people coming from over there to get prescriptions filled after the stores were closed. I myself was closed, but I’d get out and take care of them.”
“We lived above the store, and I made the deliveries when we had to go out,” Linda added. “This was a very important part of our business.”
“The doctors in town at that time were Dr. Feiler, Dr. Gerow, Dr. Ornduff, Dr. Jennings, Dr. Vizzard,” Ted said. “Dr. Ornduff and Dr. Jennings were pediatricians. Dr. Gerow was in a white house next to Jennie Bickerstaff’s (later Rosenberg) house, where Diablo Foods is now.
“There were many shortages (after World War II), paper products of all kinds. Although they began to loosen up a year after we came here, so that we could get Kleenex and that type of paper product which was almost nonexistent the latter years of the war. Toilet paper, Kleenex, they hadn’t come out with paper towels yet, that sort of thing was in very short supply. Napkins, of course. They were nothing like the ones we have nowadays that are so soft and nice. As far as the drugs were concerned, we had twice-weekly deliveries out of San Francisco. One company was McKesson, Langley and Michaels. The other company was Coffin-Reddington & Company, and twice weekly they sent a van- like truck out with deliveries of the merchandise we would send in on order. Of course, this twice a week delivery made it very hard on a store such as ours starting out with a small stock and gradually working it up, because twice a week just wasn’t enough for someone who was sick.”
“I had to go into Oakland to the wholesale house and pick up whatever Ted needed to fill that prescription,” Linda remembered. “Rain or shine, it didn’t matter. We couldn’t just pick up the phone and call it in, because you had to take care of your customer and had to do this sort of thing. That’s how we built our business.” It would take Linda forty- five minutes or more to go into Oakland. “Probably a good hour in and an hour out sometimes.”
Ted remembered the merchants in town in 1947. “In those days Cape Cod (today Celia’s Mexican restaurant) was called The Curve. It was a chicken and dumpling place, a full dinner place, and they served fresh home-made biscuits. People by the name of Sollars were the owners and operators. Then next door to me was a flower shop run by Jory, and there’s still a Jory’s Flower Shop in Walnut Creek or Martinez, maybe both. Next to him was Ed Carey’s insurance office, then next to that was a saddle shop where they carried boots and saddles and ropes, all the things for horsemen. Coming further down the street, where Lafayette Federal Savings & Loan is now (currently CitiBank), was Alsam’s continental type restaurant, night club. They had entertainment in the evenings, good orchestras. In fact, Lafayette in those days had lots of good orchestras even up to the late fifties. Remember when Bob Scobie and his group used to come to Lafayette?
“The fish market was there practically as it is today, some changes. The Tunnel Inn was there, and it was run by a man by the name of Gus Schwartz where Petar’s is now (Petar’s moved to the south side of Mt. Diablo Boulevard. Pet Food Express is on the site of the old Tunnel Inn). Later his maitre d’, Jay Bedsworth, took it over and ran it for fifteen years or more. Then Petar bought the building and restaurant. The cuisine was much the same all those years, very good food. They used to make, and still do, the best Roquefort cheese salad dressing you ever tasted.
“The building next door was the Central Bank where Freddie’s Pizza is now (currently Pizza Antica). It was the only bank in Lafayette all through the 40’s and into the 50’s. Next to that was a very good bakery. There was a house where the Phillips Service Station is now (the corner of Thompson Road and Mt. Diablo Boulevard).
“Mrs. Rosenberg’s house was directly across the street. In fact, I’d see one of them come out of the house and step out and wave to them. Next to them was Super-Saver, now Bill’s Pharmacy (now Longs Drugs). Next door to that was a children’s clothing and toy store. Down the street was an orchard, back of where the Shell station is now (today Lafayette Mercantile). Across from the Texaco service station was a walnut orchard and a little house where Marie Snedeker, the real estate lady, and her husband had their business. Next door was Coast County Gas Company. PG&E later took them over.
“Next door, where the Standard station is now was a service station then, too. Across the street (Oakland) was a little orchard, and on the back side across from where city hall is now (the intersection of Mt. Diablo Boulevard and old Oak Hill Road– now Lafayette Circle) the people ran a nursery, Wright’s Nursery. Where Lloyd’s bank is now (currently Bank of the West) was a vacant lot, and from the Garibotti Building clear down to the Garrett Building (currently Postino restaurant) was all vacant lot and orchard.
“I knew Colonel Garrett very well. He was a real character. He’d always come into the store and kiss the girls. He was a big man, about six feet or over, weighed two hundred fifty pounds or more, very florid complexion. He not only was a big man physically, but mentally with his ideas. He built that beautiful brick building, put a slate roof on it, and it’ll probably stay there a thousand years. He tried so desperately to get the other landowners in that area to continue that, so Lafayette would have a look like Carmel. But no one had the vision to do that.”
Ted described the way Mt. Diablo Boulevard used to look: “There was no unity at all to the architecture, a shame, because if Lafayette had followed the ideas Colonel Garrett had it would be a unique town. We used to look down the street from our store, walk out to the curbside, no sidewalk then, and look down the street to see a mass of wires and old, dilapidated buildings. The Roundup building was there, needed paint very badly. Further down on the corner of Hough was a drug store (now Starbucks). Next to that was the Emporium, a little department store with very nice merchandise. Then came the Dime and Dollar.
“Next door was a saloon. Then came a barber shop. Next door was an open lot with a house in the center. A German couple ran a nice little short order eating house there (Bill’s Place). Where the bank (Wachovia) is now – that obnoxious-looking building on the corner of Moraga and Mt. Diablo – was an Associated service station run by Ed Carey’s brother. Across the street, the Union station was there and the Plaza was there, but not nearly so nice as it is now.
“Where the Handlebar is (former site on the plaza of Handlebar Toys) was a grocery store and meat market. Where the restaurant is on the corner was an open lot. Next door Dolly Coleman had a little dress shop, cleaning establishment and dressmaking. Next to that was the Medau’s (now the Wayside Thrift Shop). The theater was there, looking very much the same.
“The highway was not where it is now. That hill came down across there and the road was cut through almost like a canyon with hills on both sides. Where the Ford place is now (currently Boswell’s) was a hill that must have been fifty feet high. The old Knights Templar Hall was on that hill.
“Going back up the other way, across from the Associated station, the restaurant wasn’t there nor the flower shop. But where the cleaners is Jim Shierry had his clothing store, then later he moved across the street (Moraga Road) into the new Garibotti Building. Where the delicatessen and television is now was a grocery store run by Al Mortera and his brother. Beyond that was El Molino, a night club. Molino was mixed up with the gambling interests. You’d see these people come up in big cars, and they had a side entrance and a stairway that went up. Downstairs he ran a very good Italian restaurant. We ate there many times.
“Across Oak Hill Road was Mrs. Van Meter’s house (post mistress). She and Mrs. Rosenberg were very good friends, and when they got together they could tell stories about the old days. Captain Sandburg, an old Scotchman, was a real estate man. He and his wife, when we first came here, operated a business across the street from where our store was. In behind was a tank house for water storage and a windmill to pump it. They had their office in that building until it was sold. The freeway took all that property.
“Across the street from where Moraga Road comes into Mt. Diablo Boulevard (currently Bank of America) the blacksmith had his shop, Thomson. It was still there in 1947. It’s where Carl Geschke of Lafayette Paint and Hardware started, and where Jim Cunningham, the Big O Tire Shop, started. Then Mt. Diablo went over the hill down where Hinks had their store. They had a furniture store there. The building where Butler-Conti is was there. Where Taco Bell and all those building are, there was nothing. As you go down toward the cemetery, I don’t think there was another building the rest of the way down, all orchards. On the other side of the street people named Pingree owned a building and had a clothing store on the side and a restaurant on the other side. That’s all there was on that side of the street outside of some homes.
“The big changes I have seen on Mt. Diablo Boulevard I don’t think could ever have taken place without us being a city. Remember the center strip that ran from Cape Cod down to just past Moraga Road? (In the 1950’s, as part of the city’s Design Review Project, Mt. Diablo became a boulevard with a divider in its center. Before that time, cars parked nose-in at the curb. The divider was installed at the same time the East Bay Municipal Utilities District installed a water line through the center of town. The first divider extended from Dolores Drive on the west end of town to Moraga Road on the east.) People were so used to coming down the boulevard and turning across to park in front of a business. All the businessmen thought it was going to mean the end of Lafayette. It never hurt my business a bit, and I had a blockade a half block on either side of me. So it was a good thing, and I’d like to see more of it. They should form another district for the parts that are not paved, and let those people take care of the middle of their street because those are the parts of town that don’t look so good now.”
Excerpted from “Voices of Lafayette” by Julie Sullivan. This book is available for purchase in the History Room.
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